My baby boy hits me

It doesn’t happen often, but I’m always at a loss for what to do when it does. Sometimes, when Andrew isn’t getting his way, he swats me in the face.

This seems to happen most often in public when I’m not letting him run off or do something he wants to do. So naturally, I’m embarrassed that I’m one of “those moms” who “lets” her child hit her. Because we’re often in public, it’s not like I can turn my back on him in admonishment because he’ll just run off. Instead, I’ve been sitting him down, getting eye level with him and saying, “No hit Mommy. Hitting not nice.”

I’m not sure it’s really getting me anywhere. At his age (22 months), my husband says I’d be better off using distraction.